Clemens Crossing Elementary School

This is the next post in my “For My Graduate Class” series. This week’s assignment was to investigate webquests. For this assignment I needed to learn about webquests, investigate some webquests and reflect on my learnings.
Before starting this assignment I was familiar with webquests. Before becoming an administrator I was a technology teacher for a few years. During this time I didn’t ever create my own webquest, but I did do some with a few of the classes I taught. I remember an explorer webquest that I did with classes of fourth graders and a Revolutionary War quest with classes of 5th graders. My definition of a webquest is an online learning adventure where students attempt to discover the answer to a question or a group of questions by visiting preselected websites and reading/interacting with those websites. From my experience with them, webquests can be an extremely valuable learning tool. I have seen how motivating webquests can be to students. We all know how much students enjoy using the computer and webquests are entirely computer based. Beyond that, however, there are even more reasons they are valuable. These include the fact that students can work at their own pace (different students can be at different places of the same webquest), webquests involve a lot of authentic reading for information, and many of them involve students working together in groups.

Some of this I knew before I started reading the articles and visiting the webquests assigned this week, but the reading and visiting helped with some of it as well.  In addition to the learning I gained from visiting those quests I also spent time this week thinking about how we could incorporate webquests into instruction here at Clemens Crossing.  Two ways came to my mind, one easier and one a little more difficult.  First, the easy way.  There are many, many webquests that have already been created by other teachers elsewhere.  If we spent some professional development time learning about the basics of webquests, how to evaluate webquests, and then having teachers explore, many of our teachers would find quests that aligned with curriculum they are already teaching.  All that would be left would be to sign up for some computer lab time and get the students engaged!  The second more involved procedure would be to have teachers create their own webquest(s).  This would have to be done over the course of several months through the professional development strand portion of our staff meetings next year.  This could be a very good way to use that time.  We have had two technology professional development strands for each of the past two years and I plan on having technology be a focus again next year.  This integration of technology, reading and writing would be a great way for teachers to spend their PD time.

This is another post from the graduate class I am taking. Our assignment for this week was to watch and react to a video on TeacherTube that was posted by a professor at the University of Virginia titled “Teaching Content is Teaching Reading”. If you are interested, the link to the video is: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=74780.
My initial reaction to the video is I think he makes a lot of very good points, but he oversimplifies it a little. I completely agree that knowledge matters in reading and a student can be the best decoder, but if they don’t understand what they are reading they will not get anything out of the reading. However, I would like to see a lot more data proving that teaching reading strategies and comprehension strategies is not effective, which is a claim he makes. I have seen these strategies work with students, so I know students can be taught ways to help with their comprehension.

With that said, I agree it is important for us to use interesting texts when we are teaching reading and integrating content (science and social studies) into reading time is very, very valuable.  If you just look at time, we spend 45 minutes a day on either science or social studies in grade 1. If you calculate percentages, that is about 6% of the day in science and 6% of the day in social studies. However, students get more science and social studies instruction because our teachers do have them read nonfiction texts during language arts.

I enjoyed watching the video.  I found it very thought provoking and I found myself nodding my head with many of his points, but I do not agree with all of them.

This is another post for the graduate class I am taking.  The question for this week is: Why do you think it is important to teach our students how to read a URL and be critical thinkers of what they are reading?

The quick and easy answer to that question is that there is a lot of misinformation on the Internet and good information isn’t useful if you can’t discriminate between it and all that is wrong.  What makes the Internet so great is also what makes it so dangerous as a source for information.  It is open to everyone, information can be posted instantaneously and there is no system by which biases and personal agendas need to be shared.  In my mind this can be a very powerful positive, people who previously did not have an avenue for their voice can have a pulpit by which they can be heard worldwide.  However, that power can also be abused.  One of those abuses can come when students are using the Internet as a research tool and just take what they read as fact, instead of critically evaluating the source and the purpose behind the author’s writing.  Sites like Wikipedia have proved that people working together can create awesome works of factual and reliable information.  But that critical eye is so important.

I’m sure most of us receive emails with stories claiming to be fact on a regular basis.  Personally, I am always very skeptical of these emails and go to snopes.com or another myth debunking site to see if they are true or not.  When it comes to the Internet a feel like a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted.

Here at school we teach about evaluating websites in media and in technology classes.  Students begin to learn to look with a critical eye at what they are reading and how to determine what sources are reliable.

I am currently taking a graduate class through Towson University called Integrating Technology and Reading Instruction.  Our assignment for this week was to create a blog and write a post about these two questions: How does the technology used within the classroom today differ from when you were in school? Where do you see technology integration evolving in the future? Since I already have this blog, it didn’t make much sense to create a new one, so I am doing my post here.

Wow, the differences is technology usage from when I was in elementary school are almost too many too name.  I started kindergarten in 1975 and finished elementary school (6th grade) in 1982.  During those years the technology I remember was watching films on the two reel projectors, overhead projectors and filmstrips.  I remember being very impressed when the filmstrip and audio tape combo machine began being used.  That machine automatically turned the filmstrip when the tape was at the appropriate place.  (Very cool!)  As I moved to junior high school and high school I did get more involved with technology.  I remember doing some programming of the little turtle with LOGO and I also remember a high school class where we did some programming in BASIC.  The final project was to teach the computer how to keep score in bowling correctly.  Outside of school, my family had a home computer when I was in high school and there were times when I used the word processor to type my papers.  All of these examples are not really integrating technology, I was using technology as a tool and as a means to an end, but it was never really part of any of my daily classes.  That is one big difference that I see.  When I walk around the school I see teachers using technology as part of their instruction every day.  Sure, we have a technology class where students are totally focused on learning using tech one time a week for an hour, but beyond that teachers are using their LCD projectors and document cameras to display exemplary student work and motivate students to achieve; they are downloading short videos from UnitedStreaming to add to their lessons; they are using the computer as a classroom station to help teach reading.  I could go on and on, but technology is now a part of what they do.

Moving forward I see this continuing to evolve.  As students and teachers become more and more comfortable and knowledgeable about technology it will just become a larger part of what we do on a daily basis.  Teachers will be using ebooks when they are working with a reading group.  Textbooks will become more interactive as technology becomes both less expensive and easier to access.  Finally, I think students will continue to push us forward.  As teachers see what students can do that will motivate them to continue to use new technologies in the classroom.  What do you think?  Any memories of technology in your schooling that you want to share?

Second quarter report cards came home yesterday.  The report card offers a great opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with him/her.  If you want more information about reading and understanding the HCPSS elementary school report card, you can check out this Podcast I did a few years ago: http://cces.hcpss.org/School_Videos or see the Understanding Your Child’s Report Card Brochures located here: http://www.hcpss.org/parents/.

I recently had a parent ask me if we have an honor roll at Clemens Crossing.  We do not have an honor roll and there are a few reasons for that.

In Howard County elementary schools the primary and intermediate report cards are completely different.  The primary report card is centered around whether a student is able to master objectives independently or with assistance and the intermediate report card is centered around the degree of success measured in a traditional A, B, C grading system.  The structure of the primary report card would not translate at all to an honor roll.  So this would mean that grade K-2 could not be part of any honor roll.  This is not the only reason (we could still have one for grade 3-5), but excluding half the school from an honor roll is one reason we do not have it.  Second, as I stress to parents whenever I talk with them about their child’s report card, the first place to look at an elementary school report card is the above/on/below distinction for reading and math.  A student’s letter grades (A, B C, etc.) are based upon their performance on the curriculum and the expectations for that grade level distinction.  By that I mean a student who is on grade level in reading has to do some different things to earn an “A” then a student who is above grade level or below grade level.  For thsi reason, just looking at grades is not really the best indication of which students deserve special recognition.  Those are the main two reasons we don’t have an honor roll.

Every Friday we send home community notices in students’ Friday Folders.  Most of these do not raise any eyebrows, but every once in a while one does.  This week a flier from a local church was one of the notices.  This weekend I received emails from a few parents questioning why a church related flier was sent home at a public school.  Here is the answer.

All communications in the Friday Folder (other than the ones from the school or the CCES PTA) must be approved by our school system’s public information office.  Once approved, the fliers are  delivered to the school along with a letter from the public information office saying that we can distribute them.  The policy that governs the distribution of fliers is Policy 10010 Distribution and Display of Materials and Announcements and it can be found here.  Basically, all non-profit organizations are allowed to disseminate materials through the schools unless the content of the flier could reasonably be predicted to cause material disruption.

I’m still working on figuring this Twitter thing out   By that I mean I am very interested in posting information that is both relevant and useful to parents, but I am worried that either I will post things that are not interesting or am not posting things that are mundane to me (since I am at school all the time) but would be things that parents would want to read.  Does that make sense?  I know I want to post when major schoowide things happen (PBIS Pep Rallies, Lockdown Drills, Pumpkin Run, etc.), I see something special in a classroom, and as a reminder for upcoming events.  I am also open to other suggestions.  Do you have any suggestions about topics worth Twittering about?  (Of course this post would not be complete without a link to my Twitter account.  My Twitter name is dlarner and I can be found at twitter.com/dlarner.)

We had a great first week of school.  As we do every year, Mrs. McNelis and I met with all the grades to talk about rules and expectations.  It is something I really enjoy.  The students get to show us all that they know about ROAR behaviors, and what it means to be Respectful, Organized, Achieving, and Responsible.  Some of the insights the students have are really amazing.  We have now done this together 18 times (3 years and 6 grades a year) but each time the students make it a little different.

Another first week highlight was the Wednesday visit of County Executive Ken Ulman and Superintendent of Schools Sydney Cousin.  They toured the building with us and interacted with many students.  Their visit included a stop in Mrs. Thompson’s room where the county executive read a book to the students.  It was great to show off our building and the wonderful learning environment we have.

I received another nice email from a parent wondering why we had one piece of our playground equipment replaced a year ago and why is that piece of playground equipment designed for children age 2-5.  Here is my response:

All schools have a kindergarten playground and a regular playground.  At some schools these are located in two different areas and at some schools they are together.  At Clemens they are together.  Two years ago concerns were raised about our old kindergarten playground equipment.  It was determined that there were some possible safety issues, so the kindergarten play equipment was replaced last summer, at no cost to Clemens Crossing.  We were not scheduled to receive new equipment so we did not get both play sets replaced, we only got the new piece to replace the kindergarten equipment that was removed.  At the time I investigated how much it would cost to replace the other playset, and it would have cost over $20,000 which the school would have had to pay for.  That was prohibitively expensive and that is why we have one older (although not old) and one newer play set out there.  It is also why the sign says ages 2-5 for the new piece of equipment, since it is designed for kindergarten students the school system buys the 2-5 age range and not the 6-11 age range.  It is safe for older students to use and we allow them to use it at recess, but technically it is our kindergarten equipment and the other blue and yellow climbing equipment is our grade 1-5 set.